1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a transmission system for transmitting a signal from a transmitter to a receiver, the receiver employing a storage device for storing content information comprised in the signal and a control module for controlling the storage device.
The invention further relates to a transmitter for transmitting a signal to a receiver, the signal employing content information.
The invention also relates to a receiver for receiving a signal from a transmitter, the receiver employing a storage device for storing content information within the signal and control module for controlling the storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known transmission system is TiVo""s Personal TV Receiver system, which is disclosed on Tivo""s Internet site (http://www.tivo.com). In this known transmission system, the transmitter is a television signal transmitter broadcasting television signals and the receiver is a so called Personal TV receiver. This Personal TV receiver comprises storage device for storing up to 30 hours of audio/video content information within the television signal. Furthermore, the Personal TV receiver has control module for controlling the storage device, so that only a selection of the audio/video content information is stored in the storage device. The Personal TV receiver makes a nightly phone call to obtain up-to-date program information from the Tivo Personal TV Service. This program information enables the Personal TV receiver to identify and record audio/video content information that a user has specifically asked for or other audio/video content information that may be of interest to him. In this way, a selection of the audio/video content information is stored in the storage device and the user can watch (parts of) this selection whenever he desires to.
Under certain circumstances, it may be desirable that a service provider, who for instance has sponsored the storage device, is able to determine (part of) the content information which is stored in the storage device. In the known transmission system this is not possible.
Hence, it is an object of the invention to provide a transmission system that enables service providers or other interested parties to determine (part of) the content information which is stored in the storage device. This object is achieved in the transmission system according to the invention, which is characterized in that the signal further comprises storage control information associated with the content information, and the control module is arranged for controlling the storage device in dependence on the storage control information. By including storage control information in the signal, which storage control information is associated with the content information, a service provider who has control over the transmitter and over the signal transmitted by that transmitter, is able to define (parts of) the content information that need to be stored. This storage control information is thereafter used by the control module to control the storage device so that the defined (parts of) the content information included in the signal are indeed stored in the storage device. The content information may include data (e.g., news headlines, weather reports, stock market data or sports results) and/or audio (e.g., songs, news headlines, sports reports, voice mails, spoken books) and/or video (e.g., news, sports, movies, video clips). The storage control information may be included in the signal in any conceivable way and format, provided that the receiver is able to extract the storage control information from the signal and that the control module are able to use the storage control information for controlling the storage device.
A second embodiment of the transmission system according to the invention is characterized in that the transmission system further comprises a network, the signal being transmitted from the transmitter via the network to the receiver, the transmitter being arranged for transmitting the signal in dependence on the load of the network. Such networks, e.g., mobile phone networks or cable television (CATV) networks, normally have a load that strongly varies during the day. Often the load of these networks is relatively high during the day and the evening, while the load is relatively low during the night. Service providers, who have control over the transmitter and the network, normally have equipment which provides information relating to the load of the network. According to the present embodiment, this information is used by the transmitter to determine the times at which the signal can best be transmitted to the receiver, e.g., during the times that the load of the network is relatively low. Preferably, the transmitter is arranged for transmitting the signal during periods that the network is less than 70% loaded.
Furthermore, this embodiment has the additional advantage that a lower capacity of the network may be sufficient. Voice mails or video messages, which normally would be transmitted to the receivers at the request of the users of the receivers during periods that the load of the network is already relatively high, can now be transmitted under control of the service provider during periods that the load of the network is relatively low. This reduces the peak load of the network.
A third embodiment of the transmission system according to the invention is characterized in that the network comprises a mobile phone network. In mobile phone networks, the majority of the capacity is unused during the night, and this unused capacity can now be largely used for sending content information to the individual receivers. Normally, mobile network bandwidth is rather expensive. Therefore, content information which is transmitted to a receiver at a time instance chosen by a user of that receiver is expensive. However, content information transmitted at a time instance selected by the service operator (i.e., the mobile network operator), can be at virtually zero transmission costs, as the spectrum load is a priori known by the service operator at any time.
A fourth embodiment of the transmission system according to the invention is characterized in that the control module are arranged for retrieving content information from the storage device on request of a user. In this way, the user can access the stored content information at a convenient moment. An overview of the stored content information may be presented to the user by a user interface, which enables the user to select parts of the stored content information. Alternatively, the control module may be arranged in such a way that the user can access the stored content information only in the order in which it is stored. The control module may permit the user to delete some parts of the content information without reproduction (i.e., listening or viewing), while other parts such as advertisements or important messages from the service provider (e.g., service announcements) may not be deleted without reproduction.
A fifth embodiment of the transmission system according to the invention is characterized in that the control module are further arranged for collecting user preference information, the receiver comprising a transmit module for transmitting the user preference information to the transmitter. By the user preference information, which indicates what types of content information the user prefers, the service provider is able to determine what content information to include in the signal. Preferably, content information preferred by the user or by most users is included in the signal.
A sixth embodiment of the transmission system according to the invention is characterized in that the transmitter is arranged for including content information into the signal in dependence on the user preference information. This measure allows the transmitter to automatically include preferred content information into the signal. In a point to point network, such as a mobile phone network, content which is personalized for each individual receiver may then be transmitted to each individual receiver.